Ash Wednesday

Bryce and I have been looking forward to Lent. Lent is the 40 days that lead up to Easter, a time that the church has historically used for repentance and preparation for the celebration of redemption that comes with the cross. Many times this "preparation" involves fasting from something, or committing to pray more regularly.  

I think it is so easy to see Lent as a time for self-improvement.  Giving up cussing, or calories, so that by Easter you are a brighter, shinier, skinnier person.  This is the opposite of a spiritual discipline.  These things make you feel better and better about yourself as you succeed, or worse and worse as you sneak the goodies you promised not to have.  In the end, we are left looking at ourselves and the rules we have kept or broken.  

If my fast doesn't cause me to look to God as the Giver of every good thing, as the Bread that is sweeter than chocolate cake or cookies, as the Strength for my body that is so weak that it needs food constantly, then my fast is really just about me.  And I certainly can't save myself... though I try all the time. We read through Isaiah 58:1-12 last night with our neighborhood group.  Such a helpful passage when thinking on fasting.  

We went to an Ash Wednesday service this week at Redeemer Anglican Church.  Eli went with us in a little baby-frontpack I was wearing.  We all went down to receive our "marks," a cross of ashes on our foreheads.  It was going great... a nice poignant reminder of Jesus.  The priest said to each person as he marked them "From dust you were formed, to dust you will return."  Then, after he marked Bryce, then me, he leaned lower and marked Eli and that changed everything for me. 

 

This is the mark of the curse of death he is putting on our faces.  This is a sign of our human frailty, brokenness, sinfulness.  The sign of the power of death.  How DARE he mark Eli.  It was so powerful to me, how much it shook me up (and Bryce, too).  But that is the truth... if we are not broken, we do not need a Redeemer.  Death is a powerful force, yet Christ has broken the bonds of death to redeem his people.  I see signs of brokenness and death all around me.  This is a reminder that it is IN me, and in Eli, too.  Eli needs a savior.  

Come, Easter, come.